Warm Beer Cheese Dip Recipe for Sacramento Beer Week

It’s Sacramento Beer Week! Starting Friday, Sacramento suds up in a celebration of ales. Events run from February 22to March 3.

Keep reading to find out how you can win a free ticket to the March 2ndCapital Beer Fest, a showcase of more than 90 breweries, including every Sacramento area brewer. The event is the brainchild of my pal and Beer Week’s executive director, Dan Scott, a man who knows his beer.

Last year, my husband and I walked to Cal Expo to enjoy the beer festival and weren’t disappointed. Free swag (beer bottle cap earrings, anyone?), food trucks, and of course, quality brews lured us in. The event used recyclable cups, courtesy of the nonprofit Green Restaurant Alliance Sacramento (GRAS), and also featured some of the region’s top home brewers.

Sacramento has a rich beer history, and its reputation in this craft beer region can stand up to any others. We’ve got Ruhstaller, Rubicon, and Track 7. Plus, we’re only a stone’s throw from the grand daddy, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. In fact, Sacramento has ten beer producers within city limits, another fifteen less than an hour away and eight new regional breweries scheduled to open in 2013!

In celebration of the upcoming week’s festivities, I created this beer cheese dip. It goes great with pretzels and… uh, beer!

I really enjoy using hoppy West Coast-style IPAs (most any of Port Brewing or Lagunitas Hop Stoopid) when cooking off some of the more hearty greens in the pan. The citrus character to them, mixed with collard greens or dino kale is a fun combination for me.

I ‘ve only used cheaper beer for cooking – PBR, MGD – but I was just thinking a beer glaze or reduction in lieu of the vermouth one my cornish game hen recipe calls for would be tasty, and for that I would use a belgian tripel. I just had Ruhstaller’s the other day – could be a definite possibility!